In U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,710, there is disclosed a heavy duty carrier intended to pickup and transport large ladles or slag pots of the kind used in foundries, steel mills, and other metal and slag generating industries and which weigh, when loaded, on the order of 200 to 400 tons. Generally speaking, the carrier disclosed in the above patent includes a trailer with a pair of heavy trailing arms on which the load supporting wheels are mounted and a generally U-shaped cradle pivotally mounted on the trailer arms for embracing the ladle or pot and supporting it through large laterally spaced hooks suspended from the cradle arms to engage the ladle trunnions. The carrier disclosed in the above patent includes a laterally shiftable cradle which provides advantages over carriers of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,330,429, 3,825,135, 4,063,658 and 4,122,961 since these carriers contain non-laterally shiftable cradles thus requiring very accurate maneuvering of the large heavy trailer in picking up the ladle so as to avoid the ladle being unnecessarily bumped or jarred resulting in potential damage to the ladle.
The laterally shiftable carrier disclosed in U.S Pat. No. 4,729,710 includes a pair of rearwardIy projecting, articulated cradle side members which include rear extensions pivotally connected to rigid front legs by substantially vertical hinges. Hydraulic shift cylinders are provided to laterally shift the cradle side members by pivoting of the hinged side member extensions. Due to the extreme weight of the loaded ladle, the hinged cradle side members experience unusually large amounts of stress when supporting a loaded ladle and this may produce functional difficulties during the operation of such a carrier. Additionally, these lateral shifting arrangements are rather complicated and therefore expensive to build initially and to service and maintain in use.